On Friday, October 7th I visited the Moscow Museums of Oriental Art. You can call and make reservations to have private ceremonies with your very own tea Shaman. Okay, he wasn't really called a tea Shaman, but he took me on a spiritual tea journey I will never forget. For 90 minutes, our tea guide introduced our small group of 4 to the wonders of Chinese tea ceremony. While we sipped cup after cup of delicious teas, he explained the history and characteristics of each blend we sampled. I learned how to really smell tea, and the beauty that exists in the art of tea ceremony. It was interesting for me to compare Chinese and Japanese tea ceremony. The most striking difference was that we didn't apologize to our neighbors for receiving or drinking tea before each other. Japanese ceremonies love to add honorifics and apologies to anything formal. Overall, it was a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. I recommend taking a walk around the museum afterwards if you haven't yet been. There are lots of interesting exhibits and artifacts from different areas of the east: Pakistan, India, China, Korea, Japan, and more.